State law: Drivers must stop for crossing pedestrians at marked crosswalks and at all intersections without crosswalks
Posted: June 10th, 2019, 1:53 pm
Have you ever tried to follow this state law? I have. In fact, I've been especially diligent in the past several months. Here's what I have experienced:
[*]I'm quite alone following this law. Drivers behind me get confused and angry at me for stopping for pedestrians
[*]Pedestrians get angry with me for following this law. Many times I've been impatiently waved at to keep moving...by pedestrians! I get it: they assume nobody else will follow the law and will simply go around me and hit the pedestrian that I have stopped for
[*]As a pedestrian, I tried to cross Minnehaha Avenue at 43rd street. Though I was standing quite clearly and visibly at the crosswalk, I had to wait nearly three minutes to cross, making eye contact with pretty much every driver who blew right by me. I'm one of those weirdos who take such things seriously and get angry at the entitlement of drivers, particularly when the auto-erotic unimodalists constantly complain about how bicyclists are law breakers.
Obviously the law is not followed, nor is it enforced.
I'm curious what people think of the signs in St. Paul that point out this state law...it's honestly how I first got to know about it. I would really like to see similar signs on Minnehaha now that it's been resurfaced and had the bump-outs added. Doing the latter and not enforcing/advertising the state law requiring motorists to stop is exactly the kind of half-measure that makes me fume. It seems like so much that we do in the Twin Cities are half-measures: at-grade rather than separated grade mass transit; painted stripes rather than safe bike lanes; building Blue Line stations along that pedestrian moat known as Hiawatha Avenue, necessitating crowds of jaywalkers on a four lane divided throughway. I know it has a lot to do with unimodalists who have fought funding for anything that doesn't service their automobiles...I wonder if they are winning the long-term battle by crippling multi-modal transportation in this manner.
What would happen if a significant police presence were occasionally...present...solely to ticket this infraction? I suspect that would give the law some visibility.
[*]I'm quite alone following this law. Drivers behind me get confused and angry at me for stopping for pedestrians
[*]Pedestrians get angry with me for following this law. Many times I've been impatiently waved at to keep moving...by pedestrians! I get it: they assume nobody else will follow the law and will simply go around me and hit the pedestrian that I have stopped for
[*]As a pedestrian, I tried to cross Minnehaha Avenue at 43rd street. Though I was standing quite clearly and visibly at the crosswalk, I had to wait nearly three minutes to cross, making eye contact with pretty much every driver who blew right by me. I'm one of those weirdos who take such things seriously and get angry at the entitlement of drivers, particularly when the auto-erotic unimodalists constantly complain about how bicyclists are law breakers.
Obviously the law is not followed, nor is it enforced.
I'm curious what people think of the signs in St. Paul that point out this state law...it's honestly how I first got to know about it. I would really like to see similar signs on Minnehaha now that it's been resurfaced and had the bump-outs added. Doing the latter and not enforcing/advertising the state law requiring motorists to stop is exactly the kind of half-measure that makes me fume. It seems like so much that we do in the Twin Cities are half-measures: at-grade rather than separated grade mass transit; painted stripes rather than safe bike lanes; building Blue Line stations along that pedestrian moat known as Hiawatha Avenue, necessitating crowds of jaywalkers on a four lane divided throughway. I know it has a lot to do with unimodalists who have fought funding for anything that doesn't service their automobiles...I wonder if they are winning the long-term battle by crippling multi-modal transportation in this manner.
What would happen if a significant police presence were occasionally...present...solely to ticket this infraction? I suspect that would give the law some visibility.